Islamabad: Pakistani doctors and other professionals took to the streets on October 25 to protest against the four-day detention of a top surgeon by Pakistani intelligence agents and US over alleged links to al-Qaida.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and Pakistani military intelligence agents picked up Amir Aziz, a widely respected orthopaedic surgeon, in the Eastern city of Lahore on October 21 on suspicion of financing and treating al-Qaida fugitives.

His detention has seen Pakistan's professional classes take up the anti-US slogans normally associated with fundamentalist Islamic groups.

Around 300 doctors and engineers marched in Islamabad waving placards inscribed with slogans such as "Pakistanis are not safe in Pakistan" and "FBI get out of Pakistan".

Protestors in Islamabad demanded Aziz's immediate release, as a group of doctors in Lahore gathered on a main road to stage a three-hour token "hunger strike" in protest against the surgeon's detention.

"We cannot allow a third country to dictate terms to us. This is putting the country's sovereignty in danger," said Doctor Yasmin Rashid, the head of the Pakistani Medical Association (PMA).

Intelligence officials, requesting anonymity, told AFP that Aziz was still being questioned in a secret location.

Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said Aziz might be officially arrested after his interrogation, which could be over by the weekend.

"If there is anything against him that comes out of this interrogation then certainly we will consider seeking arrest orders against him according to the law," Haider told AFP.

The minister said intelligence agencies sought Aziz because his name had been mentioned by Taleban and al-Qaida prisoners in US custody in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

"There was an oblique reference to Dr Amir Aziz during interrogations in Guantanamo Bay. He was invited by one of our agencies to clarify the situation." Haider insisted that Aziz had "voluntarily" agreed to assist investigators' inquiries.

He ruled out handing Aziz over to the US, where all al-Qaida suspects nabbed in Pakistan so far have been transferred.

Intelligence officials said Aziz was believed to have treated Osama bin Laden two years ago.

"Even if he had treated Osama bin Laden he did so in his capacity as a doctor. How can you stop a doctor from treating even an enemy's soldiers?" asked the PMA's Rashid.

The Pakistani Professionals Forum and the PMA have called the surgeon's alleged links with al-Qaida "baseless charges".

AFP